Tai'an and 6666 steps. Part 3

The next leg of my trip took me to Tai’an – it was my last weekend with Matt and turned out to be quite amusing. We’d got a bus to Mount Tai’an, claimed to be the world’s most climbed mountain. We began in earnest the 6666 steps, passing temples and street vendors on the way. We thought we were well prepared for our climb but as we got higher it got steeper, harder and COLDER!! Matt got loads of laughs as he had decided to wear his shorts. Typical of China when we reached the summit there was a whole village on top - restaurants, hostels, hotels etc. On the way back down Matt entered into negotiation attempting to haggle over a coat. However, neither Matt nor myself knew whether it was for renting or buying. Ha ha!! It was dark as we descended and with the pollution the gloom was spooky. As the lights from the city came in to view the atmosphere became even more weird.
Having said goodbye to Matt I set off on the high speed rail journey (300km ph) to Beijing with positive thoughts of how I was coping on my own!